Ethics Solution

By Chuck Bahde

"Clean" Elected Officials and Project Approvals

Elected officials must be held to a higher standard than your average civil service employee. They have taken an Oath of Office to represent the voters with the highest fiduciary duty. When they violate this duty, there must be consequences. In testimony before the Retirement Board, Ethics Commission, and City Council, I urged that denial of retirement benefits be such a consequence. When the plea bargain in the Council member Stallings case (insider trading and unreported gifts) was announced, I was shocked to learn that her retirement benefits ($23,000. per year) would not be effected by this agreement. My research revealed that under current statute and ordinances there are no circumstances under which an elected official could lose their retirement benefits. This is just flat out wrong! There must be specific language added to the Municipal Code allowing the Retirement Board to deny benefits for an elected official. Other retirement systems have "bad boy" statutes that allow Boards to deny vesting and return contributions or approve lesser benefits. I will again ask that the Ethics Commission review this issue so that the City Council can pass the appropriate ordinances or statutes that would grant the Retirement Board the power to deny retirement benefits to fallen elected officials.

During the past decade in the City of San Diego, in order to facilitate large real estate projects, there has been too much of "doing what's legal and not enough of doing what's right" . This lack of honesty is the direct cause of the lawsuits and the delays that we have witnessed. To cite some examples.

• 1. SeaWorld. Anheuser-Busch successfully passes a ballot measure that allows them to build higher than 30'. They say that there are no plans for a hotel or a roller coaster yet only months later both are added to the master plan.
• 2. Downtown Ballpark. Proponents state that Transit Occupancy Tax will pay for the Ballpark financing but when time comes to finance the bonds there is not nearly enough TOT. The general fund is then used to cover the shortfall, an action they claimed would never happen.
• 3. Naval Training Center. The height limitation is waived without a required vote of the people, and the developer promises to pay for restoration of the historic core but is subsequently released from that promise.
• 4. Chargers. The taxpayers fund a $78 million dollar stadium renovation to insure that the team would stay in San Diego, yet they somehow they are able to leave in 2004.
• 5. Sewer System. Enterprise Funds targeted to replace aging lines are stolen for general fund needs and then sewer rates are raised again to replenish the depleted enterprise fund.